Customer Reviews

The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty

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The Entrepreneurial Mindset is a truly remarkable book and, I believe, an extremely useful one. However, it is not the book that, in my opinion, the reviews that have been posted here imply it is.

For one thing, it is not about entrepreneurs. In fact, the cast of characters is dominated by managers in relatively large organizations. Nor is it about the kinds of coalition-building activities that Gifford Pinchot described in Intrapreneuring (although the topic of political obstacles is addressed). What it is about is strategic innovation. It is a detailed description of an elaborate and exhaustive process for rationally generating (and choosing among) strategic alternatives in the face of uncertainty. This is not a process that the authors have observed while studying entrepreneurs. It is, rather, a description of the tools the authors have developed to work with management teams in established firms to discern original responses to business challenges. Said another way, the book has to do with the process of discovering new things to do - things for which there are no precedents and about which there is very limited data/information - in established businesses.

In some respects, this book constitutes a synthesis (and an impressive one) of themes that have been at work in the strategy literature in recent years. The majority of these themes reflect concerns about how to respond to a business environment in which products rapidly become commodities and (therefore) in which new options are much more strategic hypotheses to be investigated than they are plans to be formalized and funded. Much of the authors' attention is devoted to unearthing new hypotheses from the available data and sorting through them to settle on future courses of action.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset, while easy to read, is not a light narrative by any means. It is, at base, a technical book about a specific approach to strategy development and implementation. It views strategy first as a creative activity and then as a resource allocation problem that terminates in resource allocation decisions first to classes of opportunities and then to specific projects. The search for options ("opportunities" in their terms) occurs at the product/market segment level, not at the business level. Areas considered in search of novel approaches include product features, delivering more value at specific stages of the so-called Consumption Chain, market resegmentation, and radical redesign of the value chain.

There are a few cases in which the authors' actual practice around a task or topic does not become clear until 20 pages or so after their initial presentation of it. Thus, it is hard to derive full value from this material without taking detailed notes and without giving it a second read. (The authors themselves seem to anticipate the need for a twice-through reading, advising us on several occasions that it is OK to skip the next section if this is the first time you've read the book.)

There are none of the traditional "soft" tools of strategy to be found here - no mission statements, value disciplines, driving forces, or what have you. While the book does deal with "Building Breakthrough Competences" in Chapter 8, the approach presented revolves around identifying how to excel on one or more core performance metrics rather than with respect to specific sorts of skills and activity groupings that Hamel & Prahalad adherents have grown used to. Therefore, people whose primary interest is in enunciating over-all themes and affecting corporate culture will not find wisdom on their principal needs here.

As mentioned above, the book incorporates the insights of other researchers - carefully documented in an extensive (and useful) bibliography. Happily, some of the most intriguing of MacMillan's own published ideas have found a place in the process. Other "connections" include:

Pascal, Managing on the Edge - Honda's Five Why's; Wheelwright & Clark, Revolutionizing Product Development - "Types" of development plans; Slywotsky, Profit Patterns - Business model redesign as a strategic response; Porter, "What is Strategy?" in On Competition - Model redesign and unique activities; Brown and Eisenhardt, Competing on the Edge - The idea of "probes."

The list could go on.

Finally, the strategy professional will be pleased with the checklists and questions (called "quizzes") that the authors provide. Some of the very best of these, in my opinion, are:

Sample Questions on Buyer Behavior (pp. 51-52); Is There Potential For Radical Reconfiguration of the Current Business Model? (p. 96); Assessing Market Uncertainty (p. 174); Assessing Technical Uncertainty (p.175); Sources of Competitive Insulation (p.190-191).

In addition, there are many templates to for "mapping" strategies that are quite useful. The notion of "leading indicators" of project progress is a marvelous idea - reminiscent of the principles that Norton and Kaplan have enunciated in their various writings on leading and lagging performance metrics and the Balanced Scorecard.

As a strategy professional, I must admit to one basic reservation about the process described in this book. I cannot imagine how to get a group of busy managers to take the time to do all of these steps in this quantity of detail. There is no doubt in my mind that The Entrepreneurial Mindset presents an ideal way of going about strategy development and selection at the business level. In fairness, the authors point out many cases in which one should modify the process to reflect local custom. Even then - in the absence of some extreme strategic crisis - maintaining interest in and motivation around so exhaustive and elaborate a process rates to be a huge challenge.

The bottom line - It's a relatively technical book aimed at those responsible for strategy development at any level. It does a wonderful job of laying out the details of an exciting process through project implementation. It's a "must read" book because it integrates many current ideas and techniques so well. It's a two-read book. (Actually, I'm on my third time through at the moment.) But it's well worth it.

Bob Nickels 01/15/01

MacMillan and McGrath put together one of the most actionable management books I have read in years. Each chapter is replete with how-to information: frameworks, tools and methodologies to implement their strategies and build-out new ventures.

The first 7 chapters provide tools to identify and define opportunities. Chapter 2, for example, details exactly how to set up a database to capture new business opportunities, with fields that describe the product/service and forces that affect its success, such as competition and company position. Chapters 3 through 6 provide usable frameworks which will fill your database with opportunities. The frameworks cover everything from redesigning products and services and redifferentiating for customers to resegmenting and restructuring markets and creating new competencies. The rest of the book covers execution: developing and timing entry strategies, managing uncertainty through discovery driven planning, and creating an entrepreneurial culture.

As a consultant, I have been able to use many of MacMillan's and McGrath's frameworks with my clients. Specifically, chapter 8's opportunity options frameworks have been invaluable to categorize new venture opportunities for our clients in the high-tech and financial services industries, and have aided in determining "go" and "no-go" decisions for further investment. Additionally, as I am an aspiring entreprenuer, I personally use their tools for opportunity assessment to inventory and rate my own business ideas.

I highly recommend The Entrepreneurial Mindset to corporate venturers and entrepreneurs alike. While the book covers a lot of ground, it is able to do so in an easy to read fashion. The tools and frameworks throughout the book keep the reader engaged and turn the theoretical into the applicable. The Entreprenuerial Mindset is an essential desk reference for new venturing and a highly worthwhile read.

You like to learn the entrepreneurial mindsets from this book. The authors teach this course, at the Executive MBA program, of Columbia Univeristy (only $15,000 for five days). Of course your company pays for it. If not, reading this book is a good alternative ($20 is not bad). The problem with the book, is generality. It does not provide examples of any individual or firm that has been successful with the use of the entrepreneurial mindset. It is like teaching you all the theory to be successful, but no examples on how these theories can be put into action. I stronly disagree with most of the reviewers here that this is a useful book to start a business. It is not. However if you wish to learn the theory, this is the book for you. I would like to find out if the authors themselves, started any business of their own by using these theories.

Bottom line first: Buy this book. Not only can you immediately implement the tools described, but it will also serve as an excellent reference tool. It is well worth the time invested to read it. Consider it an option on your career with limitless upside.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset illustrates the process for rationally generating, choosing among, executing, and monitoring strategic opportunities in the face of uncertainty. Starting from the premise that no market is so mature that you cannot further differentiate your offerings, the authors offer action-oriented, simple tools that help to assess opportunities for launching new products and entering new markets. And those tools aren't just simple, they're also smart and unconventional, providing insight into the minds of habitual entrepreneurs who have honed their skill in creating value time and again.

McGrath and MacMillan publish the checklists, questions, quizzes, and models it took them years to develop while working with management teams in established firms to discern original responses to business challenges. You can start applying the principles and tools in each chapter immediately, getting some good quick hits even before finishing the book. For example, Chapter 11 alone contains 8 tools for developing leading indicators of the business to help tell if a project is heading in the right direction, long before the results become available. Chapter 10 is a gem too. It is based on one of Harvard Business Review's most popular articles, "Discovery Driven Planning" (written by the authors of this book), which was then developed into a course at Wharton's Executive Education Programs for several years.

Anyone who reads and implements the principles, strategies, and tools outlined in this book is sure create value, regardless of their corporate title, and it is a must-read for any strategy professional or executive manager. If you think your industry or business is too mature to benefit from this book, consider one of McGrath and MacMillan's many case studies that are fresh and actually worth studying: Blyth Industries boosted sales from $3 million in 1982 to nearly $500 million in 1996 by exploiting a mature industry. How mature? More than 5,000 years old: Blyth Industries sells candles.

Creating and nurturing an Entrepreneurial Mindset is a lot of fun and carries a lot of rewards, both professionally and personally. To quote the authors at the end of their first chapter: "If nobody knows what the future will hold, your vision of how to navigate it is as good as anyone's. The future may well belong to you."

-Sean Nevins, The Zermatt Group

If you are looking for structure in building/discovering new opportunities for a new or existing product or want to help in validating your current product offerings, this is the book for you. The insight it brings in helping you gain a better grasp of not only your products and services but also your business is invaluable. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to establish a well thought out strategy to ensure future success and open their eyes to new possibilites.

Out of all the business book that I have read in getting my MBA and working in the real world, this one is the best. Great Job!!

I have read well over 100 books on entrepreneurship and this one is definitely one of the 2 or 3 best (along with The E-Myth Revisited and Business Sense).

The thing that I think makes this book particularly good is that the authors studied a lot of "habitual entrepreneurs" -- people who've started not just one, but as many as 30 successful ventures -- and share their findings about the unique and non-conventional ways in which these multi-venture operators develop and pursue their business ideas. As a result, this book has a lot of practical advice and ideas I've never read about elsewhere.

For instance, the authors say that conventional strategic planning techniques aren't appropriate for most startup situations and instead show a model for "discovery based planning" which saves time, money and frustration. If I'd had this book ten years ago, I'd have avoided a lot of expensive mistakes and probably made a lot more money as well. Highly recommended!

I never really felt like an entrepreneur because I didn't have the proper "lens" to view the world from that perspective.

This book is that lens - and a real eye opener.

I realized that being an entrepreneur is about aligning activities to fundamental entrepreneurial objectives and then measuring results.

I quickly understood why I was failing as an entrepreneur (well, maybe a few minor successes!)

For me, measurement's a cruel thing because, in retrospect, I laughed at how misguided my past activities were.

The good news is now I have a good way of guiding my activities and measuring my entrepreneurial success.

So the future should be onward and upward towards greater entrepreneurial success!

"The Entrepreneurial Mindset" offers thought-provoking strategies to be successfull in a universe of constant change and high uncertainty. Using lessons from the entrepreneurial world, the authors presents a set of "best practises" that are insightful and quickly applicable to any businesses. Specific advice is given to reframe your product offering and come up with blockbuster extensions, or to build unique business competences and differentiate from competitors. I highly recommend this book.

McGrath and MacMillan have achieved what dozens of authors have only hoped for - written a book that contains strategies and tactics that are powerful and immediately actionable.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset is packed with tools that can be used by CEOs, Division Managers, Product Managers and anyone responsible for driving profitable company growth. Many of the techniques in the book appear deceptively straightforward - yet are powerful and immediately practical.

Concepts like Attribute Mapping and Consumption Chain analysis, for example, can serve as a core framework for developing - or repositioning - existing products and services. The goal is to move away from selling commodities, and creating valueable (and profitable) offerings that customers absolutely must have.

I have used these concepts numerous times and with great success.

This is a great book on strategy and innovation... of products, services, and your entire company.

There are many actionable checklists, as well as excellent case studies and comments. Lots of footnotes and a well-developed bibliography.

Minutes after you buy this book you could use their checklists to improve your product and service offerings.

Most highly recommended.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

PS: I bought a second copy to give away to a friend.